Bodies found in the Amazon arrive in Brasilia to confirm their identity

The bodies found the day before in a remote region of the Amazon where the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian indigenist Bruno Araújo disappeared, whose murder was confessed by a poacher, arrived in Brasilia this Thursday, where they will be subjected to expertise to confirm their identity .

The Brazilian authorities located the human remains 3 kilometers into the jungle in the Valle do Javari the day before, eleven days after the disappearance of Phillips, a contributor to The Guardian, and Araujo.

Look: Two brothers confess to having murdered and dismembered journalist Dom Phillips and investigator Bruno Araújo

The bodies were found in a remote jungle region after being guided by one of the two brothers arrested in relation to the disappearance and who confessed to having killed both with a firearm after being seen practicing illegal fishing.

The Police confirmed that they are investigating the participation of other people in relation to the murder, a tragedy that has exposed the various threats suffered by the Amazon and in particular the Javarí Valley indigenous reserve, on the border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, and which home to the largest number of uncontacted natives in the world.

This Amazon region has become a kind of lawless land, where the absence of the State has opened the door to the growing presence of drug trafficking, fishing and poaching, pirates and illegal mining.

According to investigations, the illegal fishing of pirarucú and piracatinga would be serving to launder the money from trafficking.

“Fishermen, hunters and traffickers are entering our area and making death threats”, an indigenous leader from the Javari Valley who prefers not to identify himself for fear of reprisals, tells Efe.

Illegal activities were under the scrutiny of Araujowho for years was regional coordinator of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) in the Javari Valley.

“Now that the spirits of Bruno are walking in the forest and scattered among us, our strength is much greater,” said this Thursday the couple of Araujothe anthropologist Betariz Matos.

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were last seen on Sunday, June 5, while on a trip through the Yavarí Valley region, in the extreme west of the state of Amazonas, in Brazil. (CARL DE SOUZA / AFP).

REQUESTS FOR A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION

The indigenous organization of the Javari Valley (Univaja), which was on the front line in the search for Philips and Araujó, expressed his concern with the continuity of the investigations and with their own lives once the Armed Forces and the international press withdraw from Atalaia do Norte, more than 1,000 kilometers from the capital of Amazonas, Manaus.

“What will happen to us? Will we continue to live under threats? We need to deepen and broaden the investigation.” Univaja stressed in a statement.

Various international organizations also spoke out in this regard, calling for an exhaustive investigation to clarify the circumstances and the motivation for the crime.

Human Right Watch (HRW) called for action “immediate and forceful” to combat the “illegality and criminal networks in the Amazon”while Greenpeace stressed that the death of the two professional veterans is the result of “actions and omissions of a government committed to the economy of destruction”.

“We are orphans of two great defenders of the Amazon and, at the same time, hostages of organized crime that is today sovereign in the region” Amazon, Greenpeace noted.

For his part, former president and presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro’s main rival in the October elections, assured that the crime of Philips Y Araujo this “directly related to the dismantling of public policies for the protection of indigenous peoples”.

“It is also directly related to the incentive to violence by the current government of the country. What is required now is a rigorous investigation of the crime, that its authors and those who sent it be brought to justice.”affirmed Lula, favorite in the polls.

Source: Elcomercio